Food - Drink
Alton Brown’s Tip For Truly Great Candied Bacon
By ANNA STAROPOLI
To make candied bacon for a delicious garnish on burgers, vegetables, and even cocktails, simply cover bacon strips with brown sugar and bake until the sugar melts and the bacon turns crisp. While this method works with any kind of bacon, celebrity chef Alton Brown chooses his bacon carefully for the absolute best results.
According to Brown’s website, uncured bacon rises above the rest as the best kind for candying. He recommends using uncured bacon because most brands cut the strips of pork to a characteristic thickness: thicker than regular bacon strips sold at supermarkets, but not quite as thick as bacon labeled "thick-cut."
This happy medium of thickness ensures that uncured bacon will crisp up in the oven without taking forever, but will also caramelize properly without burning. Thick-cut bacon would take a long time to render out its fat during the candying process, while thin, cheap bacon may burn before the sugar has gotten a chance to caramelize.